Category Archives: Weight Loss

As a new week and a new month are beginning, I am once again embarking. It’s cold and crisp here with fresh powdery snow on the ground. I am thankful for a new beginning in my journey to freedom.

I’ve begun journaling about this path and I want to share some of what I write here. I’m also keeping a food journal at the same time to hopefully become more aware of what and why I eat as I do.

I wrote the following yesterday:

Tomorrow is Monday. January feels like it has been one long binge. I feel terrible. Unhealthy, uncomfortable and gross.

Issues must be addressed. Change must happen or I will eat myself into an early grave.

I’ve been waiting for some magic to happen, for me to suddenly “get it”. Instead my habit patterns and behaviors have jest become more engrained and set.

I know that there is a mix of addiction, habit patterns, laziness and fear at work.

What’s the “solution”? How can I get free? For the long-term, for the rest of my life?

I have a feeling that this will be a life-long battle. That scares me and makes me sad, but I know that it is most likely the truth.

I know that a diet is not the answer despite the fact that my biggest struggle is with food.

My ultimate dream and desire is that I will eat healthy tasty foods in moderation, in response to hunger. That I would be able to enjoy food without being a slave to food.

I am praying that if I invest the time now – the effort, the hard work – that one day I will move into maintenance mode. I don’t doubt that there will always be a struggle, but I pray that it won’t be so intense.

I’m still here! Still here and as of today, no weight loss for the last two weeks. That is to say, I’ve gained, I’ve lost and I’m at exactly the same place I was two weeks ago.

Not sure what is going on with me mentally and emotionally, it’s just a struggle. I haven’t been counting calories and I know that’s why I’m not losing. Why is it such a battle?

I am thankful that I haven’t gained and that things are definitely different in my mind. While I am still struggling at times with binge eating/thinking, it doesn’t last as long, it doesn’t have the same hold on me. I can see myself living life without food being my master.

I just want to get to my goal so I can start maintaining! Ha. Anyway, I continue to get good exercise everyday. The weather has calmed down a bit and isn’t so blazingly hot which helps a lot. I also have some fitness challenge plans that I will be sharing soon.

It’s hard to believe after my extended time “off”, I lost 2 pounds this week. Phew. It feels good to know that taking a break won’t ruin everything.

So that means 13 pounds since the start of June and 15 pounds down from my highest weight. Yay!

People aren’t stopping me in the street and saying how good I look or how much weight I’ve lost, but I know I’m making progress and my body and my mind are changing.

On a side note, I’m making some big, albeit cosmetic changes in my house. They’ve been a long time coming and it feels amazing. Lighter, brighter, more me. Change is a good thing.

I just realized – 13 pounds is what I lost at the beginning of 2013 on the diet competition I did. It’s also what I regained soon after I finished that diet. That four week diet sent me into a bingey, out of control season that lasted for about five months. It took me six weeks and two days to lose 13 pounds this time, but I’m not heading into freaky territory. I’m living a new life, I’m changed and I’m changing.

Down one pound this week. Slow and steady and stay motivated. I am learning so much about myself – my strengths, my weaknesses, my goals and desires for the future.

Because I have not put a time limit on this journey, because I am not on a diet, because this is about changing my mind and not just my body, I have a totally different outlook and reaction to challenges and setbacks. It’s still hard when I only lose one pound in a week, despite that being my goal, but I don’t respond by giving up. There is something that has switched in my mind and I’m not quitting.

There are still so many issues I have with food. It’s ridiculous, but I know that it will change. Like any addiction, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be completely free from compulsion in regards to food, but I do know that in time, it will not consume me. It’s hold on me will lessen and I will be able to enjoy food for its taste, for its power to fuel me and not for its ability to momentarily numb pain or cover emotion.

I’m thankful that one more pound has gone, but mostly I’m thankful for a healthy journey that is changing my life.

I discovered Spark People a few years ago. I started using it to track calories and then workouts. Eventually I also started tracking other goals as well as weight and measurements. I love it. There are so many great features and so many areas I have yet to explore. There’s a great community section with teams and personal pages.

I love that I can save favorite foods and workouts. I can also input foods that aren’t in the database. It has a great app as well that I can use on the go for my phone and tablet.

I’ve used more and less features as needed. For me, at this point in my journey, tracking calories is very important. I can imagine a time when it won’t be as important, but for now it is and I’ve found Spark People to be an amazing resource. It’s also far more than a calorie counter. I’m still getting to know the site and all it has to offer. There are many inspiring success stories. I love that you can join teams and take part in challenges. You can find buddies if you need to, but it’s also ok to just hang out by yourself and use the tools that are offered. Did I mention that it’s all free?

If you are on Spark People already, feel free to look me up. My user name is Melncolyspark.

This isn’t a sponsored post, I just wanted to share one of the tools that I am using along the way.

Let’s talk salad. I eat a lot of salad. I love salad. I love the tastes, the crunch, the variety, and I will admit that I love that I can eat a lot of it for a few calories. I am not far enough along on my journey to a healthy relationship with food that I don’t still desire to feel like I’m eating a lot, feeling full.

Most days for lunch, I have a salad. Not everyday, but most days. It’s easy, convenient and lovely in the Summer. I start with a base of lots of lettuce – usually romaine. I add a couple tablespoons of salad dressing – I make my own or I buy one without hundreds of calories. Then I will add some other vegetables – celery, bell pepper, tomato and green onion are some of my favorites. Sometimes I’ll add canned or bottled other things as well – hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, beets. Finally, I add my favorite thing – protein! Meat! I love meat. I use canned tuna and chicken, leftover meat from dinner, chicken breast strips, lunch meat, ham. It’s all good.

This is what a usual salad looks like along with the calories.

So, the other day, we were at Walmart at lunch time and I wanted a quick, convenient lunch. I let the boys pick out some Lunchables – bleh! They enjoyed it. I decided to get a packaged salad – I was kind of excited about it – different flavors, all calories counted for me. So I started looking. There were three ranges – small, medium and large. Pretty much three flavors in each size – cobb, chef and southwest. I looked at each of them and eventually chose the smallest. It only had 190 calories which is much less than I usually have at lunch. It tasted pretty good, mostly due to the creamy, Ranch dressing I imagine. I do miss creamy dressings – cannot justify those calories. Anyway, the medium size was barely bigger than the small size and had 50 more calories. Here’s the kicker, the large size which looked to me to mostly just be more lettuce and a bit more toppings was 540 calories! I am not going to spend that many calories on a store-bought salad. Arg. I have no idea what jacked up the calories so much – dressing? a bit of creamy dressing?

Phew – it is hot here! I know it’s not as hot as it is in some other parts of the US, but it’s too hot for me. Especially with no air conditioning. Sigh. I’ll deal with it, but it’s not much fun.

So today, at four weeks and two days into this journey I’ve lost a total of 10 pounds from starting weight and 12 pounds from my highest, non-pregnant weight. That’s two pounds in the last week. I’ve taken probably a week’s worth of days “off” – simply not counting calories. Most have been moderate, a couple of bingey days.

I’m super pleased with my results so far on the scale. I’d like to feel more in the way my clothes are fitting. However, I wasn’t really wearing tight-fitting clothes before I started so it’s not the greatest of indicators – I think I am just anxious to start wearing more of my clothes and I’m not there yet. Of course, trying clothes on or wearing anything other than the minimal basics is not very appealing.

Feeling thankful these days. I very rarely have any stomach or bowel pain anymore. I am sleeping better though the heat makes that tough. I am getting up way too many times in the night because of all the water I’m drinking!

I am happy at the moment to not push myself overly hard with my exercise. I get up at 5:30 am on weekdays and do my stationary bike for 30 minutes on a program that involves a gradual uphill until the last 12 minutes when it starts downhill. When it’s cooler, I have been pushing myself to do 10 miles, but with it being so hot, I do just over 9 miles. When it cools down again, I think I will need to start pushing myself some more.

So Summer is my least favorite season. There are things I like about it – plants growing, lots of fresh fruit and veg, swimming, barbecues, relaxed schedule. Now if we could have all those things while never going about 65F, I’d be a happy camper.

I am super blessed to live in an area where Summer comes late, as in, it’s only starting right now for us. Many houses, including ours, don’t have air conditioning because it usually cools down quite nicely at night and doesn’t stay super hot for long throughout the year. Still, it’s not my favorite.

I don’t like being hot. At all. My exercise suffers – I still do it, I just don’t push as hard. I feel uncomfortable. Bleh. Whine, whine, whine. Let’s not even go into finding Summer clothes that are 1. Attractive, 2. Cool (temperature) and 3. Cool (style). Sigh. I wish I could enjoy Summer more. I know that dropping pounds will help that some, but even if I could walk around in a bikini all day and look amazing – I still don’t like being hot.

Anyway, at three and a bit weeks into this journey, I’ve lost 8 pounds. I didn’t do a Weigh In Wednesday as this week has been super busy. It feels good. I still haven’t noticed a big difference in my size, but I certainly feel better health-wise. My gut doesn’t hurt at night, I have more energy – not heaps more, but more and I just feel good.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is a slow and steady journey – one that will not end, no matter what size, weight or shape I end up at. I simply can’t go back to that life of bingeing and fear. While I know that I set out to have a slow and steady journey, I still want it all to happen so much quicker than it is happening and that is with pretty impressive losses so far. I just want to be able to wear all my clothes!

I continue to move forward. Eat less, move more, but mostly eat less. It’s simple, but not always easy. I’ve had some issues with hunger lately that I’ve never encountered before and I’m not entirely sure what to do about it. I don’t want to ignore my actual physical hunger, but I also want to stick with my plan. I need to think about it some more.

Also frustrated with the fact that I was on my plan the other day, had a skinny mocha with friends and still gained weight that day. I guess that’s part of the problem with weighing everyday. I may give that up at some point, but I’m not ready yet.

I’m still here, I’m still motivated, I’m still excited about the future.

Two and a half weeks into this journey with half a week “off”, but not crazy off and I’ve lost 6 pounds. I like the idea of saying “released” 6 pounds, but it sounds kind of cheesy. I am determined that there is no going back. My goal is to lose 58 pounds. I’ve lost 6 so that means that if I stick to my goal of an average of 1 pound a week, then one year from now, I will be at my goal weight. Summer will look quite different.

I actually took some time this morning to try on some clothes in my closet. I haven’t lost much, but I know I am feeling more confident, because I actually enjoyed it and am looking forward to trying some new outfits soon.

I do feel the desire to rush things, to lose it all quicker than my plan, but I am also feeling strong.